Severus Snape – Antihero (by Liana, AdieA's muggle daughter)
Everyone that knows Harry Potter acknowledges that Harry is the Chosen One. The Boy who lived. The Hero of the series. One could also argue that Dumbledore is the second almost equally important hero of the series. He did ultimately sacrifice his life for the greater good. After reading the books several times and watching the movies of course, I would like to argue that there is a third hero. Probably not quite as noble and traditional as the first two however I could argue that he is perhaps the most important of them all. The anti-hero Severus Snape.
According to Wikipedia, an antihero or antiheroine is a protagonist who lacks conventional heroic qualities such as idealism, courage, and morality.
It is easy to see his bad qualities, afterall we have spent the entire book series and probably many years hating him. The first six years of Harry’s life at Hogwarts he loathed Snape. Snape bullies the Griffindor students, treats Harry like absolute dirt and has a morbid fascination with the dark arts. He is cold, seemingly unfeeling and he definitely does not keep good company. Not the type of person any of us wants for a hero. In fact, in my opinion Snape has zero qualities that would make him the hero of anyone’s story. One should also never disregard the opinion of the Sorting hat who clearly saw something dark in Snape and out of the four houses sorted him into the one in which we know all the evil wizards of this past century have originated from.
Interestingly enough, this cold, calculated, sarcastic bully captured the hearts of millions by shedding a single tear. He must be one of the most complex characters I have ever come across. He hated Harry as much as one could hate someone yet did everything in his power to protect him. In The Order of the Phoenix we start learning about the traumatic childhood Snape suffered and in book number six which is named for Snape, we start to see more about this dark character. Snape finally gets the job he waited for for five years and he speaks of the dark arts with disturbing tenderness and admiration.
We aren’t very clear on what Snape did after leaving school. We do know he became a death eater and that he quickly became close to Voldemort, perhaps because they had a lot in common. Both were never loved or shown love as children. Both hated their muggle fathers. Both had the capacity for cruelty. The one big difference between them being that Snape had felt great love. From childhood until the day he died, he loved Lily deeply. One can only imagine how much it must have hurt him when she married one of the four Marauders who had tormented him during his years at Hogwarts.
After he had established himself in Voldemort’s ranks he went to Hogwarts to seek a teaching job there and was at Hogshead for this reason, when he overheard an extremely interesting conversation between Professor Dumbledore and a prospective Divination teacher. As we know this was the conversation where Professor Trelawney made the first of only two legitimate predictions which were later housed in the Department of Mysteries. Here, she prophesied to Dumbledore that, “The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not… and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives…”
Immediately after hearing this, Snape left to inform Voldemort. Not realizing who she was talking about and who’s life he had just endangered. This information earned him an even higher ranking with Voldemort. When Snape realized that the Potters had become a target of Voldemort’s, he hurried to Dumbledore and made a desperate appeal to Dumbledore to save the Potters. “Hide them all, then! Keep her— them— safe. Please!” was his plea, to which Dumbledore replies, “And what will you give me in return, Severus?” Snape’s promise, “In— in return? Anything.” Snape’s words once again revealing the deep love he has for Lily.
Throughout the seven books, Snape works to protect Harry all the while loathing him because of all the traits he shares with his father. His love for Lily greater than his hatred of James. This started as early as the first book when Snape saved him from his cursed broom. Snape successfully worked as a double agent. We as readers were shocked when in book five it was revealed that Snape is part of the Order of the Phoenix.
Our hatred for Snape grows throughout the years as he treats our hero Harry like dirt. After all, Harry is The Chosen One! If one didn’t hate him enough before that fateful night it is firmly cemented when he kills Dumbledore. An act which we later realise was extremely difficult and painful for Snape .
Snape became headmaster and this probably protected many of the students against the death eaters. Granted he was not the best headmaster Hogwarts had seen in seven years but with Dolores Umbridge one could certainly do worse.
The second wizarding war commences and leads up to the moment where Harry, so close to destroying Voldemort, reaches Snape and tries to save him. Snape urges Harry to take his memories before he dies. Harry does this and hurries to the pensieve. These memories allowed forgiveness for Snape from all who had doubted him and especially from Harry. It revealed a second part of his persona. It revealed that Snape had suffered enough grief for nine lifetimes. Even though Snape hated Harry because he reminded him of his worst enemy and the love off his life at the same time, he had worked fiercely to help and protect him till his very last breath.
There are two Chosen Ones in this series. Harry and Snape. Harry defeated Voldemort but just as Lily’s love had protected him so Snape’s love of Lily had equally protected Harry.
Harry later remembers Snape as the bravest man he had ever known and even names one of his children after him and so Snape lives on, in Lily’s own grandson.
Snape is one of the best characters ever written. He had immense character flaws and yet acted with more bravery and love than imaginable. And in the moment of his death, he fell physically but rose metaphorically, and will remain for evermore, Severus Snape – Antihero.
"After all this time?" "Always." Alan Rickman 21 February 1946 – 14 January 2016
